“
Magnus, remember what happened the last time you tried to tango. Your shoe flew off and nearly killed someone."
"It was a metaphor. He's a Shadowhunter, he's a Lightwood, and he's into blonds. He's a dating hazard.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (The Course of True Love [and First Dates] (The Bane Chronicles, #10))
“
We dance to seduce ourselves. To fall in love with ourselves. When we dance with another, we manifest the very thing we love about ourselves so that they may see it and love us too.
”
”
Kamand Kojouri
“
You used to say. "Desire doubled is love and love doubled is madness."
Madness doubled is marriage
I added
when the caustic was cool, not intending to produce
a golden rule.
”
”
Anne Carson (The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos)
“
I flush,and my inner goddess grabs a rose between her teeth and starts to tango.
”
”
E.L. James (Fifty Shades Darker (Fifty Shades, #2))
“
Kizzy wanted to be a woman who would dive off the prow of a sailboat into the sea, who would fall back in a tangle of sheets, laughing, and who could dance a tango, lazily stroke a leopard with her bare foot, freeze an enemy's blood with her eyes, make promises she couldn't possibly keep, and then shift the world to keep them. She wanted to write memoirs and autograph them at a tiny bookshop in Rome, with a line of admirers snaking down a pink-lit alley. She wanted to make love on a balcony, ruin someone, trade in esoteric knowledge, watch strangers as coolly as a cat. She wanted to be inscrutable, have a drink named after her, a love song written for her, and a handsome adventurer's small airplane, champagne-christened Kizzy, which would vanish one day in a windstorm in Arabia so that she would have to mount a rescue operation involving camels, and wear an indigo veil against the stinging sand, just like the nomads.
Kizzy wanted.
”
”
Laini Taylor (Lips Touch: Three Times)
“
Unwrapping the paper carefully so it doesn’t tear, I find a beautiful red leather
box. Cartier. It’s familiar, thanks to my second-chance earrings and my watch.
Cautiously, I open the box to discover a delicate charm bracelet of silver, or platinum
or white gold—I don’t know, but it’s absolutely enchanting. Attached to it
are several charms: the Eiffel Tower, a London black cab, a helicopter—Charlie
Tango, a glider—the soaring, a catamaran—The Grace, a bed, and an ice cream
cone? I look up at him, bemused.
“Vanilla?” He shrugs apologetically, and I can’t help but laugh. Of course.
“Christian, this is beautiful. Thank you. It’s yar.” He grins.
My favorite is the heart. It’s a locket.
“You can put a picture or whatever in that.”
“A picture of you.” I glance at him through my lashes. “Always in my heart.”
He smiles his lovely, heartbreakingly shy smile.
I fondle the last two charms: a letter C—oh yes, I was his first girlfriend to
use his first name. I smile at the thought. And finally, there’s a key.
“To my heart and soul,” he whispers.
”
”
E.L. James (Fifty Shades Freed (Fifty Shades, #3))
“
Dance less in motion and more in spirit; awaken the dreamer within.
”
”
Shah Asad Rizvi
“
Never invest in any kind of relationship with anyone who is not willing to work on themselves just a little every day. A person who takes no interest in any form of self-improvement, personal development or spiritual growth will also not be inclined to make much of an effort building a truly meaningful connection with you. A relationship with only one partner willing to do the work ceases to be a relationship. And as anyone who has been there will tell you - it's pointless to try and dance the tango solo.
”
”
Anthon St. Maarten
“
If movements were a spark every dancer would desire to light up in flames.
”
”
Shah Asad Rizvi
“
Show me a person who found love in his life and did not celebrate it with a dance.
”
”
Shah Asad Rizvi
“
Music does not need language of words for it has movements of dance to do its translation.
”
”
Shah Asad Rizvi
“
Soar like an eagle beyond skies of heavens reach; as wings of dreams dance with winds of reality.
”
”
Shah Asad Rizvi
“
Dance resides within us all. Some find it when joy conquers sorrow, others express it through celebration of movements; and then there are those... whose existence is dance,
”
”
Shah Asad Rizvi
“
It takes two to tango”; one dictates the steps and the other executes them effectively. That is how a great show is made.
”
”
Olaotan Fawehinmi (If I Were A Girl, I Would Not...)
“
When the melody plays, footsteps move, heart sings and spirit begin to dance.
”
”
Shah Asad Rizvi
“
It takes two to tango, and if you dance too long, implosion is inevitable.
”
”
allie burke (Paper Souls)
“
...tango is art, not sex. Yes, it is art made with your body and someone else's. But not sex.
”
”
Kapka Kassabova (Twelve minutes of love : a tango story)
“
Love, after all, beats Death. Every time.
”
”
Dixie Lyle (Marked Fur Murder: A Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Mystery)
“
And what about for the first eight, ten years of his life, when loving parents encouraged his obsession with dragons and secret worlds and animals in vests who poured tea and drove motorcars and who gave him to read Tolkien and Susan Cooper and the Brothers Grimm and Madeleine L’Engle and C. S. Lewis? Is a boy supposed to leave his imagination on the side of the road when he boards the bus to manhood?
”
”
David Shafer (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot)
“
Hearts shall dance once again; when canvas of ice is painted with the brush of skates.
”
”
Shah Asad Rizvi
“
Slow-slow-quick-quick-slow went her heart.
“Damn, I love the tango,” he whispered, tickling her ear.
”
”
Ophelia London (Falling for Her Soldier (Perfect Kisses, #3))
“
Tango is where the passion and love lasts forever.
”
”
Efrat Cybulkiewicz
“
...Tango is not just a dance. It's our human condition. To everyone who loves tango, it's what art is to the artist. A way to connect past and future. But you already know this my dear...
”
”
Kapka Kassabova (Twelve minutes of love : a tango story)
“
If you really want a woman to love you, then you have to dance. And if you don't want to dance, then you're going to have to work extra hard to make a woman love you forever, and you will always run the risk that she will leave you at any second for a man who knows how to tango.
”
”
Sherman Alexie (War Dances)
“
World seems like a void of silence every time footsteps are deprived of dancing shoes.
”
”
Shah Asad Rizvi
“
As I spoke of another's love and looked into the wide, blue windows of her soul, a rich, insistent yearning flooded my senses.
--"Tango
”
”
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction)
“
Until we meet again in the everlasting world of tomorrow's dream, where the power of love is untouchable and the pain of sacrifice is invaluable.
”
”
Ramona Matta (Between The Lines Of Tango)
“
A history of nightlife!--what an interesting concept. A history of a people, told not through their daily travails and successive political upheavals, but via the changes in their nightly celebrations and unwindings. History is, in this telling, accompanied by a bottle of Malbec, some fine Argentine steak, tango music, dancing, and gossip. It unfolds through and alongside illicit activities that take place in the multitude of discos, dance parlors, and clubs. Its direction, the way people live, is determined on half-lit streets, in bars, and in smoky late-night restaurants. This history is inscribed in songs, on menus, via half-remembered conversations, love affairs, drunken fights, and years of drug abuse.
”
”
David Byrne (Bicycle Diaries)
“
(a man in love speaking)
"I don't notice much of anything anymore but Marie." He laid his hand on his chest. "This force," he said, "it just does with you what it wants to do with you, makes you feel what it wants to make you feel."
--"Tango
”
”
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction)
“
A man who wants to find out who he really is should try watching the woman he loves as she dances the tango with a maestro.
”
”
Clive James (Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts)
“
You're too sane for a lunatic girl like me. You live in reality, while I tango in the jungle of my imagination making love to firecracker dreams.
”
”
Melody Lee (Moon Gypsy)
“
...'Not all dreams get broken. We all need dreams.'...
”
”
Kapka Kassabova (Twelve minutes of love : a tango story)
“
...'You are like tango music itself, Kapka.' Julio says, catching his breath. 'You're the universal woman- wherever you go, you will always be a local and a stranger at the same time.
”
”
Kapka Kassabova (Twelve minutes of love : a tango story)
“
His kiss was like no other! His kiss was enchanted and fairy-tale like. He applied pressure, but just enough to feel his tenderness and warmth. I could feel his heart beating wildly as he pressed his chest against my chest all the while his loving lips brushed up against mine with a care-filled affection. His tongue lightly licked the outer edges of my mouth, and then searched for my tongue. The pursuit allowed a marriage of both tongues to meet - inspiring a mingling tango of hot and heavy French kissing to manifest profusely. We kissed like two hot and horny teenagers, our mouths moving and craving each others lips, in animalistic desires!
”
”
Keira D. Skye
“
Love is the colour of spring sunshine muted through old windows. Love has a taste, a texture - dark chocolate with pistachios; a sound - wind chimes echoing from a distant hill; a rhythm - the tango, obviously.
”
”
Chloe Thurlow (Katie in Love)
“
The paradox is that by being ‘in love’ we are in fact falling in love with ourselves, and we have an opportunity to see ourselves in the eyes of another. It is an ecstatic place to be, the dance of romantic love, and one that cannot be denied, for it is the place where we are most likely to experience a divine tango with our soul. Love and myth go hand in hand, for myth is the most exquisite mirror of all for the reflection of self.
”
”
Sarah Bartlett
“
He’d thought about this, a slow dance with his lover, not a flashy tango or a writhing clash under a disco ball. But he’d never dreamed he would get one. It was possibly one of the most erotic, most loving things Ty had ever done for him. Neither
”
”
Madeleine Urban (Divide & Conquer (Cut & Run, #4))
“
You’re quite the spirited dancer,” Gabrielle told Jason as they walked leisurely around the dance floor. “You never did tell me the name.” “It’s called the tango,” Jason said. “Is it well known, in your world?” “It’s probably the most famous dance there is. It was my older sister who taught me to dance. I wasn’t very interested until my father gave me some sage advice. He told me that if I wanted to be successful in love, I needed to learn three things. How to dance, how to cook, and how to keep my damn mouth shut.” “How did that work out?” “Well,” Jason said, “I can dance and I can cook.
”
”
Shirtaloon (He Who Fights with Monsters (He Who Fights with Monsters, #1))
“
they dance so fast, good and evil, these two polar opposites. So tightly and furiously. You can’t dance with just one of these partners. If you cut into their dance, you end up with both, as a threesome. And if you fear cutting into the dance and taking a spin with good and evil, you end up dancing with the cross-eyed, ugly chaperone. Even the deepest, most wondrous love can sometimes bring you to that dismal dance, and then every single tune is a tango. A bad tango composed by an angry, drunken Argentine just for you and your loved one. A tango that never ends. But back to those Cuban parties: no dancing there. None at all. Furious
”
”
Carlos Eire (Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy)
“
In my case love and hate were like toxic lovers dancing their destructive tango inside my body.
”
”
Cora Reilly (By Frenzy I Ruin (Sins of the Fathers, #5))
“
you really got to do it--it's like you don't know what love is until you have a kid.
”
”
Jennifer Vandever (American Tango)
“
But get this: you're free. Freedom is the greatest gift to the artist. Don't waste it. Go to Buenos Aires. Eat some steak. Get a fresh perspective on things.
”
”
Kapka Kassabova (Twelve minutes of love : a tango story)
“
We tangoed every night, while I was blinded by the scent of you, I’m Frankie Slade, shoot my head, you held me back.
”
”
Soroosh Shahrivar (Letter 19)
“
It is always said that we may take no earthly treasures with us when we die. No money or possessions, none of our beauty or power. That is correct. Some who have switched worlds have been intensely bewildered at first that they were unable to carry anything tangible with them. But there's a second truth. We can take anything with us that we could not hoard during our lifetimes because it could only be felt, sometimes for a few brief heartbeats, sometimes only in secret. We can take joy with us, and love. Every beautiful moment from our lives. All the light we have peacefully admired, all the lovely scents and laughter and friendship we have collected. Every kiss, every caress, and every song. The wind on our faces; tango; music; the rustle of autumn grass, stiff with frozen dew; the twinkle of the stars; contentment; courage; and generosity. All those things we many take with us. All that is in between.
”
”
Nina George (The Book of Dreams)
“
Meet your partner. You think you’ve never seen them before, but you knew them. They were in your first breakup, your worst heartbreak, your old marriage, the honeymoon sex, in the alcohol swishes of finding out your spouse cheated, and in the times she leaned over the grass to kiss your cheek at picnics. Love was dancing in the same candidate who kissed you, the same nominee who hated you, and the plenty of people who tricked you. Love was dancing to the tango of your agreement to try. Love grows bigger and bigger, shaping itself more correctly to your happy heart.
”
”
Kristian Ventura (The Goodbye Song)
“
The glow lasted through the night, beyond the bar's closing, when there were no cabs on the street. And so Mathilde and Lotto decided to walk home, her arm in his, chatting about nothing, about everything, the unpleasant, hot breath of the subway belching up from the grates.
'Chthonic', he said, booze letting loose the pretension at his core, which she still found sweet, an allowance from the glory. It was so late, there were few other people out, and it felt, just for this moment, that they had the city to themselves.
She thought of all the life just underfoot, the teem of it that they were passing over, unknowing. She said, 'Did you know that the total weight of all the ants on Earth is the same as the total weight of all the humans on Earth.' She, who drank to excess, was a little bit drunk, it was true, there was so much relief in the evening.
When the curtains closed against the backdrop, an enormous bolder blocking their future had rolled away.
'They'll still be here when we're gone,' he said. He was drinking from a flask. By the time they were home, he'd be sozzeled. 'The ants and the jellyfish and the cockroaches, they will be the kings of the Earth.'...
'They deserve this place more than we do,' she said. 'We've been reckless with our gifts.'
He smiled and looked up. There were no stars, there was too much smog for them.
'Did you know,' he said, 'they just found out just a while ago that there are billions of worlds that can support life in our galaxy alone.'
...She felt a sting behind here eyes, but couldn't say why this thought touched her.
He saw clear through and understood. He knew her. The things he didn't know about her would sink an ocean liner. He knew her.
'We're lonely down here,' he said, 'it's true, but we're not alone.'
In the hazy space after he died, when she lived in a sort of timeless underground grief, she saw on the internet a video about what would happen to our galaxy in billions of years. We are in an immensely slow tango with the Andromeda galaxy, both galaxies shaped like spirals with outstretched arms, and we are moving toward each other like spinning bodies. The galaxies will gain speed as they draw near, casting off blue sparks, new stars until they spin past each other, and then the long arms of both galaxies will reach longingly out and grasp hands at the last moment and they will come spinning back in the opposite direction, their legs entwined, never hitting, until the second swirl becomes a clutch, a dip, a kiss, and then at the very center of things, when they are at their closest, there will open a supermassive black hole.
”
”
Lauren Groff (Fates and Furies)
“
There had to be an origin for ruin. I was suddenly jealous of that tornado, the way it tangoed on the page, the way her hand ran down its length like a spine. The photo was taken from the perspective of someone who loved it, and I wanted to be captured that way, to be chased from my body.
”
”
K-Ming Chang (Gods of Want: Stories)
“
The sex act is emotionally the richest and the most imaginatively charged event in our lives, comparable only to the embrace of our children as a source of affection and mystery. But no kinaesthetic language has yet been devised to describe it in detail, and without one we are in the position of an unqualified observer viewing an operation for brain surgery. Ballet, gymnastics, American football and judo are furnished with elaborate kinaesthetic languages, but it's still easier to describe the tango or the cockpit take-off procedures for a 747 than to recount in detail an act of love.
”
”
J.G. Ballard (The Atrocity Exhibition)
“
She awoke knowing what she had been dreaming about. She was a deer in the headlights to his grinning face. In those first moments before she was fully awakened she hadn’t had time to hide her true feelings. He’d read them loud and clear. This was the moment that would start the seductive tango. There was one giant problem. Kayn could not dance her way out of a paper bag.
”
”
Kim Cormack (Enlightenment)
“
The most powerful way I know for you to lose weight and feel great in your body is to use tapping to clear your limiting emotions and beliefs so you can start listening to your inner voice. It’s time for you to start caring about what you think, so yes, go ahead and try that tango class, ask for a raise, and say no to people who drain you. Whatever your heart and body are telling you, it’s time to listen.
”
”
Jessica Ortner (The Tapping Solution for Weight Loss & Body Confidence: A Woman's Guide to Stressing Less, Weighing Less, and Loving More)
“
How could she love someone she barely knew? A year ago she would have said it was impossible: love was a choice people made daily and longevity was its measure. Love did not crash land in your living room leaving you squinting into daylight, picking through the debris of your former life. Only now could she see that it was sometimes a phantom thing, a stray that wandered the periphery of your life and moved in the minute you opened the door for who knew how long?
”
”
Jennifer Vandever (American Tango)
“
It was her grandfather who'd told her the tale of this particular violin, over and over, as if the telling could stave off loss, as if the weight and scope of human history were not found in books or in those mythic universities in Rome and Naples that no one in their village had ever seen but, rather, were encoded in objects like this one, a violin touched by hundreds of hands, loved, used, stroked, pressed, made to outlive its owners, storing their secrets and lies
”
”
Carolina De Robertis (The Gods of Tango)
“
Samantha, my mother says now, sadly, shaking and shaking her head. Looking up, up, up at where I’m tangoing in the blue hour with a woman I conjured from a swan. Like I’m a cat that has scrambled up yet another tall tree from which I now refuse to come down. But this time it’s different. Her face says, this is different. This is the tallest one I’ve ever climbed. This is the farthest I’ve ever traveled from the ground. This is the deepest I’ve ever retreated into the golden-green leaves she knows I love so.
”
”
Mona Awad (Bunny)
“
And the horrible thing was: what if they were right? What if she lived her whole life and never really knew what love was? What if it was deeper than she ever imagined? What if she died without ever knowing what she missed? How would she know to even miss it? Love--deep, profound, soul-stirring love--happened on this planet, in this life. And she missed it.
On the other hand, her mother had a point: babies were awful. They were selfish, greedy, expensive and ultimately resentful of what they later would decide you had withheld from them. You were, in effect, creating someone uniquely fine-tuned to discern your slightest faults and broadcast them from the highest point.
”
”
Jennifer Vandever (American Tango)
“
I love banned books. I used to read as many to you as I could when you were little, Mac.”
“You read me banned books?” I say this sarcastically because I know he’s making it up.
“Almost exclusively,” he answers—dead serious. “Charlotte’s Web and the poetry book by—uh—Silverstein—uh.”
“Where the Sidewalk Ends?” I say.
“And Reynolds—brave … uh …”
“As Brave as You? No! How could anyone ban that?”
“Yeah. And Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia. Remember that one?”
“I cried for a whole day.”
Mom says, “Where the Wild Things Are. And Tango Makes Three. Melissa.”
“Captain Underpants!” Grandad adds.
“A lot of younger books you loved. I Am Rosa Parks,” Mom says. “And Last Stop on Market Street and Henry’s Freedom Box, and …”
Grandad says, “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry!
”
”
Amy Sarig King (Attack of the Black Rectangles)
“
Compassion and communication are both incredibly important in relationships, but most of us use these at the wrong time. If we communicate, it's only in times of conflict, allowing repressed emotions and unsaid worries form into their worst phrasings. If we show compassion, it's only in good times, when we're feeling good about one another and don't feel triggered or attacked. What if we changed our approach? What if we showed compassion in conflict—taking the time to listen, understand, help each other release pent-up emotions? And what if we communicated in good times—taking the time to talk about patterns we fall into, triggers we both have, and how we can work together to break our cycles? Then, we would stop helplessly dancing the same old tango of mutual misunderstanding. Then, we could work on giving one another room to feel, to love, and to grow.
”
”
Vironika Tugaleva
“
Rosalind knew she was right, knew there was something even deeper that prevented her from going back. Since she began something had always bothered her about tango: she still had no idea how people knew what the hell they were doing. The dance had no agreed upon formula, no designated rules, just collectively shared sequences that a leader could use interchangeably. It was a conversation, not a speech. This was what was so allegedly wonderful about it: it was an improvisation, a negotiation between two people. No choreography, no predetermined pattern, just endless unpredictable new formations. One couldn't dominate the other. It was--if not historically, at least ideally--a dance of equals. This struck her a lovely in principle and crazy-making in practice. How do you know what to do? "The man will lead you," her teachers told her. What if his lead doesn't make sense? "It will. Practice," Mariela had instructed brightly, unhelpfully.
”
”
Jennifer Vandever (American Tango)
“
It takes two to tango but It takes "ONE" to Love
”
”
Syed Sharukh
“
I think you must ask yourself what will make you happy. Not anyone else. You.’ I stared at her. ‘I suppose you think that sounds selfish, but it’s how I’ve lived my own life. Each morning I wake up and the first thing I think is what can I do today to make myself happy. You’d be surprised how hardly anyone else does that.’ ‘Actually I wouldn’t.’ ‘Most people think only about what they have to do. They don’t stop to ask if they really want to. Me, I dance the tango to be happy, I make love to be happy, look at art, listen to music, wear beautiful clothes, enjoy all my passions as often as I can. I make happiness the thing that matters most.
”
”
Anonymous
“
It's as if some master perfumer and necromancer had foreseen all the broken promises of your life to come, all the pangs of unrequited love and unreturned letters; the torment of watching a phone that never rings; the bright expectancy of fresh hope at breakfast, in ruins by sunset ... it was as if he took all these things and blended them into a single fragrance and called it whatever the French is for Disappointment — Désolé or Chagrin or something.
”
”
Malcolm Pryce (Last Tango in Aberystwyth (Aberystwyth Noir, #2))
“
Perdu cleared his throat and announced to the empty car: “Her words were so natural. Manon showed her feelings, always. She loved the tango. She drank from life as if it were champagne and faced it in the same spirit: she knew that life is special.
”
”
Nina George (The Little Paris Bookshop)
“
The tango is all about your troubles. It’s where you go to process your troubles. Tango is one big trouble with a twenty-four-hour soundtrack. Tango reminds you that if you don’t currently have troubles of a romantic, existential, financial or any other kind – well, sooner or later, you will. Believe me, you will. The good news is, tango makes trouble exciting. You want to be part of the action, no matter how troubled. What is tango like? Tango is introverted, brooding, physically controlled, mentally involved, musically complex and emotionally dark.
”
”
Kapka Kassabova (Twelve Minutes of Love: A Tango Story)
“
Because under his sedate blazer and his knobby chest, there beat a heart, remember, that loved the tango.
”
”
Carolyn See (Golden Days (California Fiction))
“
It is one of the ironies of woman’s life in that she tends to tango her reflexes with the nuances of male proclivities. It is thus, woman’s true feelings get camouflaged in her lullabies of compliance to let her man sink into the slumber of complacency.
”
”
B.S. Murthy (Benign Flame: Saga of Love)
“
We can take joy with us, and love. Every beautiful moment from our lives. All the light we have peacefully admired, all the lovely scents and laughter and friendship we have collected. Every kiss, every caress, and every song. The wind on our faces; tango; music; the rustle of autumn grass, stiff with frozen dew; the twinkle of the stars; contentment; courage; and generosity. All those things we may take with us. All that is in between.
”
”
Nina George (The Book of Dreams)
“
Still, both Rent and Spring Awakening ultimately use gay characters to bolster heteronormativity. Angel serves as the emotional touchstone of Rent, endlessly generous and hopeful, caring and sensitive. All mourn his death, which compels the other characters to look at their lives and choices. That Angel’s death enables the other characters to learn about themselves replicates a typical (tired) trope in which an Other (usually a person of color or a person with a disability) aids in the self-actualization of the principal character. Also, Collins and Angel have the most loving and healthy relationship, which the musical needs to eliminate so as not to valorize the gay male couple above all else. In addition, Joanne and Maureen sing a lively number, “Take Me or Leave Me,” but the musical doesn’t take their relationship seriously. Maureen is presented as a fickle, emotionally abusive, yet irresistible lover (Joanne and Mark’s duet, “The Tango Maureen”) and a less-than-accomplished artist (her “The Cow Jumped over the Moon” is a parody of performance art).15 In contrast, Mimi and Roger’s relationship lasts through the end of the musical, since Mimi comes back to life. This choice, one of the few that differs from Puccini’s La Bohème (which provides the primary situational basis for Rent), shows how beholden twentieth-century musicals—even tragedies—are to the convention of a heterosexually happy ending.
”
”
Raymond Knapp (Identities and Audiences in the Musical: An Oxford Handbook of the American Musical, Volume 3 (Oxford Handbooks))
“
Rent creates new possibilities for characters’ sexualities in musicals by representing multiple gay and lesbian characters with frank and casual openness. Rent is peopled with a gay male couple (Angel and Collins) and a lesbian couple (Maureen and Joanne) and it takes those sexualities for granted in the musical’s world of NYC’s East Village circa 1990. Rent’s structure—a single protagonist, Mark, surrounded by a close-knit community—borrows formal conventions of ensemble musicals of the late 1960s and 1970s, including Hair, Company, Godspell, and A Chorus Line. This structure enables the musical to nod to nonheterosexual identities and relationships, an ideological gesture that speaks to its (successful) intention to address musical theater’s wide range of spectators and even make them feel politically progressive. This device of including a few gay characters in a community-based story is repeated with the gay male couples in Avenue Q and Spring Awakening, and perhaps foretells a musical theater future with a more consistent nod to gay people (or gay men, at least).14 Still, both Rent and Spring Awakening ultimately use gay characters to bolster heteronormativity. Angel serves as the emotional touchstone of Rent, endlessly generous and hopeful, caring and sensitive. All mourn his death, which compels the other characters to look at their lives and choices. That Angel’s death enables the other characters to learn about themselves replicates a typical (tired) trope in which an Other (usually a person of color or a person with a disability) aids in the self-actualization of the principal character. Also, Collins and Angel have the most loving and healthy relationship, which the musical needs to eliminate so as not to valorize the gay male couple above all else. In addition, Joanne and Maureen sing a lively number, “Take Me or Leave Me,” but the musical doesn’t take their relationship seriously. Maureen is presented as a fickle, emotionally abusive, yet irresistible lover (Joanne and Mark’s duet, “The Tango Maureen”) and a less-than-accomplished artist (her “The Cow Jumped over the Moon” is a parody of performance art).15 In contrast, Mimi
”
”
Raymond Knapp (Identities and Audiences in the Musical: An Oxford Handbook of the American Musical, Volume 3 (Oxford Handbooks))
“
XI. MAKE YOUR CUTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LIVING JOINTS OF THE FORM SAID SOCRATES TO PHAEDRUS WHEN THEY WERE DISSECTING A SPEECH ABOUT LOVE.
Why did nature give me to this creature-- don't call it my choice, I was ventured:
by some pure gravity of existence itself,
conspirancy of being!
We were fifteen.
It was Latin class, late spring, late afternoon, the passive periphrastic,
for some reason I turned my seat
and there he was.
You know how they say a Zen butcher makes one correct cut and the
whole ox
falls apart
like a puzzle. Yes a cliché.
”
”
Anne Carson (The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos)
“
That year, I experienced a series of watershed tango events: my first tangasm, my first Tango Teacher Infatuation, and my first Tango Relationship.
”
”
Kapka Kassabova (Twelve Minutes of Love: A Tango Story)
“
The more we tango with various things, the more our hearts get entrenched with them. The more we repeat something, the more that thing becomes intertwined in our identity. We slowly become the things we love most, just as our wellbeing grows dependent on the activities we do most. Not everyone turns to drugs to cope with their problems, but everyone turns to something. Whatever we turn to, we will justify.
”
”
Michael J Heil (Pursued: God’s relentless pursuit and a drug addict’s journey to finding purpose)
“
In my case, love and hate were like toxic lovers, dancing their destructive tango inside my body.
”
”
Cora Reilly (By Frenzy I Ruin (Sins of the Fathers, #5))
“
What a sight we must be right now, a ritzy, pretty thing laid out, a dirtbag with dried blood and grease slicked on his hands standing over her, railing her perfectly pink pussy while she tangos on my rock-hard cock. Fuck, I want to talk to her. Tell her how good she feels. How tight this pussy is, how her arousal is coating me, allowing me in even deeper. I want to tell her my dick loves the feel of her and that, for the first time in a long fucking time, I want to stay buried where I am, grind my piercings at every angle in her heat and watch her fucking thrash beneath me, pleading for more.
”
”
Meagan Brandy (Tempting Little Thief (Girls of Greyson, #1))
“
The Invitation
There are lives in which nothing goes right.
The would-be suicide takes a bottle of pills
and immediately throws up. He tries
to hang himself but gets his arm caught
in the noose. He tries to throw himself
under a subway but misses the last train.
He walks home. It is raining. He catches a cold
and dies. Once in heaven it is no better.
He mops the marble staircase and accidentally
jams his foot in the pail. All his harp strings
break. His halo slips down over his neck
and nearly chokes him. Why is he here?
demands one of the noble dead, an archbishop
or general, a leader of men: If a loser
like that can enter heaven, then how is it
an honor for us to be here as well –
those of us who are totally deserving?
But the would-be suicide knows none of this.
In the evening, he returns to his little cloud house
and watches the sun set over the planet Earth.
He stares down at the cities filled with people
and thinks how sad it is that they should
rush backwards and forwards as if they had
some great destination when their only
destination is death itself – a place
to be reached by sitting as well as running.
He thinks about his own life with its
betrayals and disappointments. Regret, regret –
how he never made a softball team, how his
favorite shirts always shrank in the wash.
His eyes moisten and he sheds a few tears, but
secretly, because in heaven crying is forbidden.
Still, the tears tumble down through all those layers
of blue sky and strike a salesman rushing
between Point A and Point B. The salesman slips,
staggers, and stops as if slapped in the face.
People on the street think he’s crazy or drunk.
Why am I selling ten thousand ballpoint pens?
he asks himself. Suddenly his only wish is to
dance the tango. He sees how the setting sun
caresses the cold faces of the buildings.
He sees a beautiful woman and desperately wants
to ask her to stroll in the park. Maybe he will
kiss her cheek; maybe she will love him back.
You maniac, she tells him, didn’t you know
I was only waiting for you to ask me?
”
”
Stephen Dobyns
“
Sex. Sex. Sex. What can I say? I just can’t get enough of Tango’s love-stick. We
”
”
Shari J. Ryan (Spiked Lemonade)
“
Mercy’s a good listener,” Tango said in a small voice. “Yeah, he is.” Ghost became gentle, seeming to choose his words. “And he’s, well, he loves hard. So his heart is in the right place. But there’s snakes in his head. Big ones. Man-eating ones.” His eyes widened for emphasis. “It kinda spooks me, thinking about the sort of advice he might give.” Tango
”
”
Lauren Gilley (Loverboy (Dartmoor, #5))
“
Jabril’s epicurean tongue rimmed at my anal receptacle before jabbing into my tunnel of love with abandon. His commanding lividity drove my tilting pelvis to receive slivers of his dripping saliva. He was preparing me for the feast of the gods. And I was delighted to suffice. Much like my Valet relishing the helmsman’s mightiness, Victor devoured the captain’s prowess with avid ferocity. Spittle of beaming wetness coated their organs. Tad led me above deck while the men followed suit. Pulling me atop a comfortable mattress, I straddled the athlete with aplomb, kissing his succulent mouth with wanton fervency. Quivers of euphoric rhapsody surged through my body when his tumid avidity eased into my passageway of forbidden love. His bouncing gyrations commingled with my lustful kisses brought our hankering spirits into a unified entity. Just as this newfound vivacity took hold, I felt another force in my core. This elevated double entry catapulted me into an uncharted and blissful realm. The captain and the champion tantalized my tightness with symmetrical cadences as we tangoed to the rhythm of the lapping waves. Tad’s provocative expertise, coalescing with Fahrib’s rousing mastery, hurled my frenzied soul to an intensified crescendo of erotic gratification. Rainbows of aesthetic enthusiasm flashed before me as Andy and Victor mirrored one another as the Levantine logerez himself onto their throbbing hardness simultaneously. He was at once in agony and ecstasy before his misshapen expression transformed into gleeful entrancement. Heaving sighs of euphoric relief, he accommodated both obelisks with pride.
”
”
Young (Turpitude (A Harem Boy's Saga Book 4))
“
Ordinary girls surrender to circumstance, and eventually that becomes the sum of their life. But the universal woman makes her own way.
”
”
Kapka Kassabova (Twelve minutes of love : a tango story)
“
[His faith] was a hundred small perfect steps that in the end can never add up to dance ... not the kind I wanted, anyway. Not the tango of Argentina, of the Spanish birthday party.
”
”
Addie Zierman (When We Were on Fire: A Memoir of Consuming Faith, Tangled Love, and Starting Over)
“
If someone left you, you had to answer with silence.
She bore the scent of a mixture of oriental spices and the sweetness of flowers and honey.
Dreams are the interface between the worlds, between time and space.
He calls books freedoms. And homes too. They preserve all the good words that we so seldom use.
Tango is a truth drug. It lays bare your problems and your complexes, but also the strengths you hide from others so as not to vex them.
Saudade. It is the sense of being loved in a way that will never come again. It is a unique experience of abandon. It is everything that words cannot capture.
They say that men who are at one with their bodies can sense and smell when a woman wants more from life than she is getting.
Another woman found it incredibly erotic when I backed pate en croute. Aromas do funny things to the soul.
Habit is a vain and treacherous goddess. She lets nothing disrupt her rule. She smothers one desire after another: the desire to travel, the desire for a better job or a new love. She stops us from living as we would like, because habit prevents us from asking ourselves whether we continue to enjoy doing what we do.
Books can do many things but not everything. We have to live the important things, not read them.
It was the season for truffles and literature. The countryside was redolent of wild herbs and glowed in autumnal rust reds and wine yellows.
”
”
Nina George (The Little Paris Bookshop)
“
it’s still easier to describe the tango or the cockpit take-off procedures for a 747 than to recount in detail an act of love.
”
”
Anonymous
“
...the most beautiful thing about tango is that it doesn't belong to anyone. It doesn't, but we'd like it to. We'd like to own it, each of us individually. We are all fiercely territorial about it. By being here despite the pain of it, we're saying: I'm holding my ground...
”
”
Kapka Kassabova (Twelve minutes of love : a tango story)
“
...dancing with someone who is causing you pain is a bit like trying to smile while having a tooth extracted.
”
”
Kapka Kassabova (Twelve minutes of love : a tango story)
“
...what exactly is there in human existence that can lure you away from pleasure: peace of mind, a walk by the sea, moderation?
”
”
Kapka Kassabova (Twelve minutes of love : a tango story)
“
Hate and love danced a violent tango inside of her. She wished he were dead. She wanted to see him smile again. She craved his suffering. She wanted him to hold her and kiss her and tell her everything was all right. All
”
”
Darcy Coates (The Haunting of Blackwood House)
“
I love Carlos like the weird, half-dead son I never particularly wanted
”
”
Daniel José Older (Midnight Taxi Tango (Bone Street Rumba, #2))
“
That's because those pages got torn to shreds when you left, now you both are in different chapters. He wants you - like always, and you want the hot guy down the street. Typical Frankie and Brody style. You guys dance one wild tango, if you ask me.
”
”
A.M. Willard (Heated Sweets (A Taste of Love, #3))
“
Therefore it came as no surprise when Andy wrote: My dearest Young, Your correspondence brings an abundance of joy to my heart. Although we’ve both grown older (and hopefully wiser), you are still the boy I knew and the boy I left behind many years ago in London. I love listening to your experiences after our separation. Keep them coming, it’s like listening to your sweet voice all over again. As I mentioned in my previous email, I should have ended my relationship with Toby before it began. Our four-year relationship lasted with a copious amount of quarreling, disgruntlement and resentment. I wanted to end the relationship three months after our sexual rendezvous, but Toby threatened suicide if I left. Those years were not easy for either of us. Pettifoggery often led to intense bickering, and he would sulk for days, waiting for me to kiss and make up with him. I resented having to admit that the squabbles were my fault and having to apologize to keep peace. These prolonged melodramas sent me into a psychological and physical tailspin. I had difficulty concentrating on my studies. One day, I told the boy I wanted to end our relationship. He was devastated and immediately started to blame me for the pain I caused him. He did not listen to what I had to say before he stormed back to our lodging. I was speechless. I felt guilty for what I had done, even though it was the best solution for us. I tried explaining that I loved you and I had mistakenly used him as a substitute, but it was no use. Toby proceeded to use this as ammunition, accusing me of perjury. Instead of being sound of reason, he turned the tables around, saying that I had falsely led him to fall in love with me. As you are well aware, it takes two to tango. Toby reminded me of Oscar’s charge, Srihan. Their parents spoiled them materialistically when what they most needed was love. Toby grew up not knowing how to love. Love, to him, was about taking; he knew nothing about giving. Unlike our relationship which was built on mature love, Toby’s and my relationship was the complete opposite…
”
”
Young (Unbridled (A Harem Boy's Saga, #2))
“
2012 My Response to Andy’s Message Thank you, Andy, for your candidness. I’m sure you will not fail to attract the right man into your life again when the time is ripe, or are you still waiting for my hand? LOL! On a more serious note, would you like to give your impression of our time in India? I’m sure readers of A Harem Boy’s Saga would love to see your side of the story. I, too, would like to know in greater detail what transpired in your life during our years of absence. As the saying goes, it takes two to tango. I will reciprocate if you take me up on this.☺ Your adoring ex-lover and ex-charge, Young
”
”
Young (Turpitude (A Harem Boy's Saga Book 4))
“
As we continued our French kisses, I reached in to caress his hardness. I released his throbbing protrusion from its confines. He too wasted no time wrenching off my remaining cover, baring me to nature’s elements. Like an unhampered bird, I felt the freedom of the gentle breezes that brushed against my nakedness. Andy lifted me up to straddle him. Leaning me against a massive tree truck, he balanced me on his sturdy arms, easing his tantalizing organ into my willing orifice. Saddling him, I jounced on his pulsating organ as if taming a wild bull. He bounced my buttocks to the fiery strokes of our love dance. Our synchronized tango palpitated with each rhythmic perforation, as I squeezed and released my inner sanctum to my lover’s pressing necessities. As much as we craved for release, our tantric preoccupations deterred us from surrendering ourselves to love’s triviality. We wanted to bathe in the heavenly glow of our sexual continence, to merge as a single entity where our peripheries dissolved into nothingness.
”
”
Young (Turpitude (A Harem Boy's Saga Book 4))
“
Well okay then. Guess we were taking off the gloves before the eggs even arrived. Cool. I could tango with Grandma if that was what she wanted.
”
”
V.L. Locey (Touch of a Yellow Sun (Colors of Love #2))
“
Fear is a fickle mistress and a tricky one to dance with: One moment it’s an exhilarating tango partner; the next minute it’s a sloppy drunk in need of therapy. Accept fear as a motivator, but don’t let it get the best of you.
”
”
Howard Love (The Start-Up J Curve: The Six Steps to Entrepreneurial Success)
“
There were occasional dances at the main prison compound with live bands as well as holiday dinners, activities that Blanche greatly enjoyed. In her scrapbooks, she placed an autographed promotional photograph of one visiting band, The Rural Ramblers. ...
Blanche loved to dance and by all accounts she was very good at it. She applied to a correspondence course in dancing that came complete with diagrams of select dance steps to place on the floor and practice. She also cut similar dance instructions and diagrams from newspapers and magazines and put them in her scrapbooks. By 1937, she had mastered popular dances like jitterbug, rumba, samba, and tango.
The men’s prison, or “the big prison” as the women called it, hosted movies on Friday nights. Features like Roll Along Cowboy ... were standard, usually accompanied by some short musical feature such as Who’s Who and a newsreel. The admission was five cents. Blanche attended many of these movies. She loved movies all of her life.
Blanche Barrow’s periodic visits to the main prison allowed her to fraternize with males. She apparently had a brief encounter with “the boy in the warden’s office” in the fall of 1934. There are few details, but their relationship was evidently ended abruptly by prison officials in December.
There were other suitors, some from Blanche Barrow’s past, and some late arrivals...
”
”
John Neal Phillips (My Life with Bonnie and Clyde)
“
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m a wimp. I admit it. But it hit me, just now, what a good person you are. How noble you are. You’re down-to-earth and likable. I see it everywhere you go. Me? Yeah, not so much. People fear me, even if they don’t know what I am. Those who do? Yeah, then they really fear me.
“So I sit here looking at you, thinking what a wonderful person you are, and it hits me right between the eyes. I need you like I need blood to survive. I need you to survive. I didn’t believe I could fall this fast for somebody, even though I know about the mate-draw thing. I don’t deserve you, but I’ll damn sure fight to keep—”
There was a blur of movement, and I found myself flat on my back, both of my arms held above my head. I stared at Remi. Whoa.
“You love me? You tell me that while I am spread out and helpless?”
“Um, not looking too helpless now.”
“I ought to shake you senseless. No, I ought to chain you down and beat your ass, then shake you senseless. And what was that rot you were spewing about me being so good and you being so not? Do not put me up on some damn pedestal. I’m not perfect. I’m as far from perfect as I can get. I’m no better than you, you fanged fucker.”
“Fanged fucker?” I snorted, then got serious. “Look, I—”
Remi released my wrists and put a finger to my lips… a finger with a nice sharp claw on the end. Well, hell. I found myself looking into the brightly glowing electric-blue eyes of his cat
“I love you too. I don’t care what you’ve done in your past. Also don’t care about whatever you’ve done to survive. You are all I care about.
“When that asshole stabbed you, I thought I lost you. I thought I lost everything. Yes, what I feel hit me quickly, and the intensity sometimes scares me, but I’ll fight tooth and nail to keep you. I’ll also gladly kick your ass when I think you need reminding.”
I hiked an eyebrow at him. “You’ll try to kick my ass.”
“No, I will.” Remi rubbed his cheek against mine, then sat up. “Together we can handle anything.”
I caressed that strong jawline of his. “You love me?”
“I love you. In fact, I love you more.”
“Not too sure of that.” My world finally settled in place around me. He was right. Together we could handle anything. “I love you too.”
“Good. Now that we’ve got that straightened out, let’s go take a shower. I, ah… yeah.” Remi pulled me up off the bed. “To the shower we go.”
Laughing, I followed him. I had every intention of helping him get totally and intimately clean, then taking his ass back to bed.
”
”
M.A. Church (It Takes Two to Tango (Fur, Fangs, and Felines #3))
“
Oh, look at you. That was absolutely meowtastic.”
Scowling, Remi punched me in the shoulder. “Oh, bite me.”
I let my eyes change, and my fangs dropped. Grinning from ear to ear, I lunged at Remi and managed to wrestle him flat on his back. Good God, I never got tired of the strength he wielded so perfectly. Or that banging body. I might be stronger than him, but he always gave me a run for my money.
He was more important to me than even the blood I needed to survive because, without him, I was nothing. I loved this man more than life itself, and he loved me, which never failed to leave me breathless and amazed.
Straddling him, I looked down at my mate. “Thought you’d never ask.
”
”
M.A. Church (It Takes Two to Tango (Fur, Fangs, and Felines #3))
“
Suddenly Heller turned serious and stepped away from Lawson. He came straight at me—okay, what the hell was he doing?—and I about swallowed my tongue. Heller hugged me like a long-lost brother.
“Thank you for protecting my mate,” he whispered in my ear.
“You’re welcome. You mean the world to him, you know?” I left it at that because, really, what more was there to say?
“Yeah, I do know. Now he needs to know.” Heller stepped back from me, then turned around to face Lawson.
Then he went down on one knee.
Lawson gasped, Remi thrust his fist in the air and yelled, “Yes,” and I rolled my eyes. Of course, that was more for show than anything. I did have a reputation to keep up
“Lawson?” Heller
held his hand out to Lawson, who took it. “You’re my everything, but I’ve told you that. My life would be… would be incomplete without you. You’re my mate—my one and only. What I haven’t done is tell you that… that… I love you, and I don’t know why I haven’t. I think… no, I know I fell in love with you the moment I looked into those beautiful gunmetal-gray eyes of yours at your shop.”
“Jesus, Heller,” Lawson gasped.
Heller pulled a small box out of his front pocket. “Shifters don’t marry… not like humans. Sometimes we have to shift with next to no warning, so we don’t wear jewelry.”
“But… you don’t shift, and being part human, I guessed marriage means a lot to you. It does, right?”
Lawson wiped his eyes. “Oh God, yes, it does. Especially since now gays can marry.”
“Will… will you wear my ring? Will you… will you wear it so the whole world can see that you’re taken?”
“Fuck.” Lawson dropped to his knees and threw his arms around Heller, sobbing into his neck. “Dammit, hellcat! I love you. I love you so much.” Lawson pulled back to look at Heller. “Yes, yes, I will wear your ring. Oh my God, you’re unbelievable! Put it on me!”
Remi eased his arm around me and rested his head on my shoulder. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
I turned my head and kissed his hair. “They worked hard for this.”
“Yes, they did. How many times do you think he rehearsed this speech?”
“At least ten.”
After a passionate kiss I thought I might have to break up before they set the rug on fire, the four of us munched on goodies, drank a couple of beers, and spent what was left of the evening watching movies. Things were going exceptionally well.
I couldn’t help but wonder when the other shoe would drop
”
”
M.A. Church (It Takes Two to Tango (Fur, Fangs, and Felines #3))
“
MY FAMILY unit had increased by one. Janelle was of my blood, and I loved her dearly. Lawson was the brother I’d never had. His mate, Heller, was Lawson’s whole world, so of course Heller was now important to me also. But Remi? Remi came before them all. He was my mate. Mine. I would kill for him. I would die for him.
Because of me he might be giving up everything he knew
”
”
M.A. Church (It Takes Two to Tango (Fur, Fangs, and Felines #3))
“
Well, there’s a point now. You’re my mate, and as such, we should be living together. I have a house—a big, lovely house I’ve spent years restoring. I… I love my house, and I don’t want to leave it. There’s plenty of room too.”
Remi shut the suitcase with a snap. “What exactly are you asking me, Remi?”
“Well, it sounds to me like I’m asking you to move in with me.” Okay, wow. I cringed. That sucked. On the romance scale, that was probably a negative one.
“Let me see if I have this right.” Marshell advanced on me. “You’re asking me if I want to leave this dumpy little home I rent? This place which has next to no furniture in it.”
“Um….” I backed up until my ass hit the dresser.
“You want me to leave all this so I can move into that beautiful, grand old home of yours? You’re asking me if I want to spend my days, and more importantly, my nights with you? You’re asking me”—Marshell waved at the urine-soaked bedding and the little dinky room—“to leave all this?”
“Um… yeah?”
“Thank fuck.
”
”
M.A. Church (It Takes Two to Tango (Fur, Fangs, and Felines #3))
“
My clothes aren’t going to get dried until you wash them. Which involves putting them in the washer, and that involves picking them off the floor.” Marshell wiggled his eyebrows at me, then turned and stepped into the shower.
I did drool when I got a look at his ass. “Oh my….” Did I mention I was an ass man?
“Remi?”
“Uh-huh?” My vocabulary had taken a hike, it appeared.
“I can smell your desire. If you’re still here by the count of five, I’m getting out and coming after you. One of us is going to get fucked in this awesome shower of yours, so….” Marshell said from the shower. “One.”
The sound I made was a cross between a squeak and a growl, thanks to acres and acres of wet, glistening skin. I wanted to run my tongue over every square—
“Two….
“Three….”
I grabbed his jeans and ran. The softly whispered word “chicken” followed me out of there. I was halfway to the laundry room before I could take a deep breath. Then it hit me what I’d done. I ran out on him. Honestly calling me a chicken was too kind. I was a coward. The only reason I ran was because I was afraid to bottom.
I was a top. I always topped. I threw his clothes in the washer, tossed in one of those little pods, and turned it on. Then banged my head against it. What was I doing? Why was I standing here and not in the shower with him?
Yes, I topped because I was afraid to do anything else. My one and only experience with bottoming was an unmitigated disaster. A painful, excruciating, unbearable disaster, and I hadn’t repeated the experience since.
“I’m an idiot.”
What happened was a long time ago. A really, really long time ago, and I let it shape me. Not only shape me, but run my life. I knew that, but it didn’t really seem to matter. The males I hooked up with were bottoms.
They wanted me to top, so it was never an issue. Now things had changed. Marshell was my mate. I knew perfectly well he’d take care not to hurt me. How did I know? Because when I got a chance at that ass of his—and I certainly planned to—I’d take care not to hurt him either. All I had to do was… trust him.
Trust him. But I really didn’t know him. Then
again, I nearly lost him too. My goddess wouldn’t match me with someone I couldn’t love. Maybe I needed to trust her. Maybe… maybe I needed to trust myself. Something deep inside me said Marshell was a good man.
I hurried out of the laundry and back to the bathroom.
”
”
M.A. Church (It Takes Two to Tango (Fur, Fangs, and Felines #3))
“
You sound surprised.”
“Not surprised, really. It’s just that….” Heller flashed me a sheepish look. “I haven’t actually told him I love him.”
“Really?” I assumed he had. Didn’t mates do that?
“Really, and I don’t know why I haven’t since I started falling in love with him the moment I looked into those sexy gunmetal eyes of his. Gods, those eyes of his. It’s like rolling in catnip.”
I leaned against my truck. Oh, this was almost too good. “Is this you waxing poetically?”
“Don’t hate me because I have great hair and a way with words. Jeez, Remi, I do. I do love him. Wow.” Heller looked at me, a happy smile plastered on his face. “I feel so much lighter now that I said it. I love him.”
“Of course you do. He’s your mate.”
Heller’s smiled
dipped. “It’s not that simple, and you damn well know it. Are you saying you love Marshell?”
“Whoa, there.” I held up my hands—like that was going to stop him. “I just met him.
”
”
M.A. Church (It Takes Two to Tango (Fur, Fangs, and Felines #3))
“
You listen to me! Marshell, fucking look at me! Now, or so help me, I’ll show you pain.”
I knew that scent. Over the pain and the need consuming me, that scent reached out to me. Beckoning me. I knew that scent. Home. Safety. Love. I… I needed to… to do something, but the blistering pain refused to let me go. Kill, kill, kill, it chanted.
“Look at me!”
I’d look at them, all right. Then rip their throat out and—
“You must try. Please, you have to try. Please. You…. Marshell? Your mate needs you.”
Mate? My mate?
The monster that consumed my control eased back. A mate. That’s right, I had a mate. A beautiful, sexy cat who… needed me? He needed me? I fought the pain back further. It couldn’t have me. I refused to let it have me. My mate needed me. I couldn’t let him down, couldn’t escape into the ether that fogged my brain and promised escape from the torment. My mate needed me. He was my everything.
“Come on, that’s it. Come on. There you go. Come back to us, please. Fight it. I know you can. Come on, talk to me. Let me know you’re in your right mind.
”
”
M.A. Church (It Takes Two to Tango (Fur, Fangs, and Felines #3))